Manual labour of love

Steve Cropley’s My Week In Cars column particularly caught my eye in the 16 February issue. Cropley appeared somewhat misty-eyed on Thursday when discussing the merits of the manual shift versus the automatic gearbox, and I have to agree with him, as I too miss this immersive experience.

I passed my test a million years ago and have since driven all sorts of interesting cars, some of them self-financed and some provided by employers. All were manuals.

My current private car, a beautiful and very rapid Audi RS4 Avant Vorsprung, and its predecessor, an Audi A4 Quattro Black Edition, have enabled me to park my left leg over the past decade.

While these temples of modern motoring are luxuriously appointed, technology-rich and capable of devouring motorway miles without breaking sweat, there’s a whiff of the dull about them. They’re simply not engaging, in the same way that 140 digital characters on Twitter can’t replace an analogue chat with a mate over a pint.

So I now find myself perusing the classifieds for a car that will get me up brutally early on a sunny spring Sunday morning to go for a B-road drive just for the hell of it. Step forward the R56-series Mini John Cooper Works GP – a proper pocket rocket with a stick and next to nothing by way of distractions. Among the track-thrashed and/or modified also-rans, there are still a few gems that have yet to enter the automotive afterlife backwards through a hedge – and I’m on a mission to get into one and still enjoy driving for its own sake as I enter my 59th year.

Nigel Page

Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire